The betrayal sits in my chest like broken glass. Every memory of her twists against the present, warping into something unrecognizable. All of it feels rotten now, hollowed out by the truth standing in front of me.
“As far as they know, I’m already dead,” I say softly.
Milan swallows, and I keep walking, watching as something calculating flickers behind her eyes. “You’re angry,” she says carefully, as though testing the words. “I get that. But this was bigger than you. Bigger than both of us.”
The knife rolls easily in my grip. “You sold me out.”
“I did what had to be done.”
“You hunted me.”
She takes a shaky breath as I inch closer, so close I smell her perfume. “You became a liability.”
The calmness in her voice scrapes against my nerves like sandpaper, and I clench my jaw, trying to regain composure, despite the fury and terror pulsing through my veins at the thought of Raiden alone nextdoor. “You were my best friend.”
For the first time since she stepped into the room, something like guilt flashes across her face. It’s brief, gone almost as quickly as it appeared, but it’s there. “It was the way it had to go,” she says quietly.
I stop a few feet in front of her. The apartment is deathly still now, the aftermath of the fight pressing in from every direction. The bodies. The blood. The ruined furniture. The thick silence from the other side of the wall—where Raiden should have already come crashing through—and fear claws up my throat before I can stop it.
Is he alive? Is he lying somewhere next door, the same way Louis is lying behind Milan right now? The possibility makes my stomach turn, and I watch as Milan studies my face, a faint smile pulling at her lips.
“You’re worried about him,” she says, her gaze tightening.
My grip tightens on the blade.
“He’s probably already dead.”
“Careful,” I say quietly, a lethal stillness sweeping over me.
Milan tilts her head, curiosity flickering across her expression as she studies the shift in my posture. “You really love him,” she says, her tone almost accusatory.
I don’t answer, but the truth is there in my silence. Instead, I step into her, my blade sliding forward in one clean motion, burying itself between Milan’s ribs. Her breath catches, her eyes widening, realizing too late what’s happening, and for a moment we simply stand there, inches apart, the world narrowing to the space between us.
“I loved you,” I whisper, the words so heavybetween us. “And now, when I think of you, all I’ll remember is this. Not the years of friendship. Just blatant betrayal. I’ll remember you as a snake.”
Her lips part slightly, as though she might respond, but the strength drains out of her body before the words can form, and her body drops.
I catch her, gently lowering her body to the ground as she holds my stare, blood pooling from the wound. “It was the way it had to go,” I mumble as the light slowly fades from her eyes. Just like that, my best friend is gone, and I simply stand, leaving her lifeless body behind, praying to whoever exists in this wide world that Raiden is still alive, still breathing, and still waiting for our forever.
CHAPTER 29
RAIDEN
Fuck me. I haven’t had enough of that hot, angry sex with Kiara to go out like this. That’s assuming she’s still alive, of course. I could hear the way her agency came for her through the wall, and I know she’s incredible, but the odds weren’t in her favor. Not even close. And in that case, if she is truly gone, then I’ll welcome any bullet they have for me.
I shake my head, letting out a heavy sigh as the men I trained with drag me through an abandoned warehouse like I’m already dead.
Concrete scrapes under my boots as two men haul me forward by chains wrapped around my wrists. My shoulders burn from the angle they’ve forced my arms into, but I don’t give them the satisfaction of stumbling.
The air inside the warehouse is thick with rust and old machine oil,the kind of smell that clings to abandoned industrial sites long after the work stops. A massive industrial fan groans as it spins slowly above us, its crooked blades slicing through the dim light spilling in from the cracked skylights overhead. The motion throws warped shadows across the concrete floor, stretching and twisting the shapes of the men around me like ghosts.
Dawn is creeping in. It won’t be long until we’re at full light, and they’ll want this done before that.
I’m dragged to the center of the warehouse and shoved down into a metal chair bolted directly into the concrete. This looks planned, like they prearranged my execution, and I scoff. Why couldn’t they have just put a bullet in my head? Why bother making a show out of it? It’s not as though they have an audience to congratulate them for a job well done.
Cold steel cuffs clamp down over the chains that are already locking my wrists together. Another wraps tight around my chest, and a final chain is secured around my ankles, pinning me to the chair like they’re trying to cage a wild animal instead of a man. Which, to be fair, isn’t far off. Even more so if I find out that my future with Kiara is no longer an option.
As my captors step back, and others move from the shadows, I lift my head and take them in, learning their faces, the way they move, the way their eyes shift around the warehouse, giving me more clues than they could ever know.
